Anil drops case against big brother

In yet another step towards making peace, Anil Ambani on Tuesday withdrew the Rs 10,000-crore defamation suit he had slapped on elder brother Mukesh in 2008.

Anil’s advocate informed Justice Roshan Dalvi in Bombay High Court that he did not wish to proceed with the suit, but did not specify a reason for the withdrawal.

In the suit, Anil had alleged that Mukesh defamed him in a June 15, 2008, interview to The New York Times.

Two Indian newspapers that had reproduced the story had also been made respondents in the suit.

This is the third action in a matter of a fortnight that indicates that the Ambani brothers are trying to heal the rift between them after they split their father’s empire and parted ways in June 2005.

After five years of feud, the brothers unexpectedly called a truce on May 23 by cancelling the non-compete agreement they had entered into in January 2006, which stopped the duo from entering each other’s business territories, and had been a source of acrimony.

The brothers also pledged to expeditiously renegotiate a gas supply agreement on the lines of the Supreme Court verdict of May 7.

Soon after the signing of the agreement, on May 29, Anil and his wife Tina stayed at RIL’s Sri Krishna Guesthouse in Tirupati. It was the first time Anil stayed there since the brothers parted ways, temple sources had said.

Reliance employees are reacting positively to the thaw. “Harmony is better than acrimony at any given day and these developments are good for the two groups,” said a senior official at one of the groups who did not wish to be named.